COOPERSTOWN ECUMENICAL VIGIL

Charlottesville Tells Us,

Resist Evil, Pastors Say

The Revs. Tom LeBeau (United Methodist), foreground, and Joe Perdue (First Baptist) help Linda Kosmer, right, and others of the 50-some attendees light candles at a noontime vigil called today in Cooperstown in the wake of yesterday’s fatal confrontation in Charlottesville, Va.  Pastor Perdue, who hosted the gathering on his church’s front lawn on Elm Street, said, “I was horrified, but not surprised.  It’s 2017, and there are Nazis on the streets of America.”  He urged attendees to “stand against violence and hatred in any form,” recalling Dietrich Bonhoeffer:  “Silence in the face of evil is evil.”  At left, the Rev. Elsie Rhodes, First Presbyterian, and Jim Atwell, the Quaker minister, also spoke, as did LeBeau, the Rev. Sharon Rankins-Burd (Fly Creek UM) and Village Trustee Richard Sternberg, representing the Jewish tradition.  (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)